


from the dardanelles to the mountains of peru

by spock



Category: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Genre: 6 Word Stories, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Clones, Counted Word Fic, Daydreaming, Gen, Pre-Canon, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-10-20
Packaged: 2018-02-21 20:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2481368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spock/pseuds/spock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Walter's always imagined Sean's life to be far more exciting than it actually is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	from the dardanelles to the mountains of peru

**Author's Note:**

  * For [youjik33](https://archiveofourown.org/users/youjik33/gifts).



Sean's work had just started to get recognition; jobs came in slowly, but at a steady pace. Mostly he'd done things in and around New York, but when _Time_ called, offered to send him to Spain for an on-location spread, he jumped at the chance. It'd been his first real job, the first time he'd stopped to bask in the perfect moment he'd been in, before pressing the shutter.

 

 

Photographer’s last photo remembered: Bull headshot.

  

 

* * *

 

 

Having been to so many places, having witnessed so many things, Sean's seen his fair share of patterns, idiosyncrasies that didn't make sense, except for how they did. He'd seen firsthand just how smoothly the world ran, without a hitch, until something glitched, bugs and errors that had never been seen before, filed away into a log to be fixed, eventually: disease, death, war, fear, hatred, hope, free will.

 

 

Dot in the sky. Dead pixel.

   

 

* * *

 

 

As a kid, Sean couldn't wait to grow up. He'd always wanted to get started with his life, for real, to finally get away from his small town, away from the people who willingly stayed there, complacently living small lives. He wanted to take what already existed and turn it into something more, something surpassing its reality. Now, in his forties, all he can do is record, never create.

 

 

Imagined adulthood. Gained adulthood. Lost Imagination.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The geneticist Sean's covering asks him if he'd like to take part in a experiment. He makes Sean sign a dozen different waivers before he even tells Sean what it is he's signing up _for_.

Later, at the airport, Sean asks his companion to turn around, puts a piece of paper on his back so he has a surface to write on, composes a letter to Walter that says, 

 

 

"I’m beside myself; cloning machine works."

**Author's Note:**

> each story is seventy-five words, including the final lines, which are the _six word stories_ that inspired them! a little what-could've-been, a little bit of creepypasta, a little sadness, a little scifi. a very tricky treat, but a treat all the same!
> 
> have a very happy halloween.


End file.
